ESG Development in Banks update

Hope you are doing well. Welcome back to our brief thoughts on ESG.

This week we are excited to kick-start the updates of our annual ESG Development Heatmaps. As in the past, these heatmaps are designed to evaluate the Mexican market’s ESG maturity level on both companies’ strategies and communication efforts.

A reminder first. Our sector heatmaps are exclusively based on information that is publicly available, and only cover Mexican companies that are publicly listed on either local stock exchange (BMV and/or BIVA). This means that companies that haven’t published their annual sustainability reports by the date that we publish, will see the results based on the latest available information.

We don’t try to assess the depth or breath of the ESG strategies disclosed (i.e., we don’t look at what material topics companies are working on, or what kinds of targets they have, as a rating agency probably would). Instead, we assess the process of how strategies should be developed (did they follow the right steps, are they aligned with the right initiatives) and how they convey it to the market.

Having said, we are starting today with banks. Let’s take a look at what they did over 2022.

Banks

Source: Publicly available company materials

What can we read from this heatmap?

1. This year, BBVA México was the only bank to update its materiality analysis. No new banks conducted materiality assessments.
2. There was no change in the public disclosure of KPI goals. No bank has yet published KPIs or KPI goals for all their material topics.
3. No additional TCFD-aligned analyses or CDP affiliations were announced.
4. Half of the sector has released updated sustainability or integrated reports. These all continued to disclose information using GRI and SASB standards, with all but one undergoing external verification.

Just like last year, banks continue to be a relatively mature sector in the market. While some have yet to fully establish and embrace formal ESG commitments, those that have continued to deepen their approach, have done so diligently. We would ideally like to see broader KPI disclosures (coupled with concrete goal setting) in the future. We would also encourage those banks that haven’t formally developed a sustainability strategy to start to catch up.

I hope you found this interesting. As usual, if there is anything we can help you with, or if there is an ESG topic you would like to know more about, please let us know.

Best,

Marimar

CEO, Miranda ESG